


Milk & Honey

by ScissorSheep



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anti-Android Sentiments (Detroit: Become Human), Character Study, Developing Relationship, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Elijah Kamski Being an Asshole, First Kiss, First Time, Good Elijah Kamski, Good Friend Tina Chen, Graphic Description of Corpses, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), This wont feature them meeting for the first time, Trauma, it's been done too many times, not a case fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:54:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23695777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScissorSheep/pseuds/ScissorSheep
Summary: "He cloaks himself in deep crimson pleasure, plunges his milky synth skin deep into the depths of vibrant feelings. It’s righteous, fueling, and seductively filling. Gluttonous and infinitely satiating. To think his partner once would have painted the walls blue with his thirium. Their worlds had so irreversibly connected together. And he wanted nothing more than to be forever intertwined."~~~A character/relationship study of Gavin Reed and his dealings with childhood trauma. My attempt at bringing this loveable asshole some much-needed soul searching and love, with Hank and Connor along for the ride <3 Truly just my love letter to the fandom.Listen along to the playlist here:Spotify Playlist
Relationships: Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson/Connor, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Milk & Honey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I started writing this back in June of last year, this has been a long time in the making I've had so much of my real life get in the way but now with all this free time I wanted to make sure I posted this. While the fic is not yet completed, I was inspired and motivated to continue writing this series after Detroit Evolution posted. This will be 4 chapters, I have the second one started at this moment. I'm aiming for an upload schedule of once per week till completion on Sundays. Starting next Sunday the newest chapter will be posted. 
> 
> Another quick note, this first part is more of an introduction, or a paralogue if you will, there will be significant time skips between each chapter. 
> 
> I've put a lot of love into this and I hope you enjoy their journey. 
> 
> Also please check out the playlist I've made for the series:
> 
> [Spotify Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1QzmJYyn3HR9x973OyKeAD?si=UbCuHaZdSHy5MKG2kpWyzg)

Humanity; despite its bright chromatic emotions, good deeds, beautiful acts of reciprocity and love, was at its very basest nature, built and designed for extreme acts of cruelty. Should anything be brought into the world replicating the complex genetic makeup of humans; may the ensuing fallout rain fire into the crimson-soaked earth. Gavin had come by that understanding at a young age after his father had married a brunette broad who’d moved into Detroit from out of town. They hadn’t known each other but a month before their fated meeting.   
  
She was remarkably intelligent, and from a previous marriage, she’d given birth to a son, Elijah. Despite their marriage uniting two broken families, Jezebel decided to keep her last name. Gavin was almost relieved. He wanted his father to be happy, especially after his mother walked out on them, but he was selfish and the idea of Elijah living with them created cracks of vivid red anger that raced across his eyelids and danced beneath his tan skin.   
  
The boys had never been the closest of siblings; rather they rotated around each other, filled with tension and hatred, an invasion of time against bonding with their own respective parent. Things did improve after Elijah went off to Colbridge (studying advanced robotics, and Artificial Intelligence) but that was simply due to the physical space that held them apart. There was no guise to appease under the constraint of studying. The two spoke once when their parents had made a video call to Elijah. Neither had the will nor desire to front a salvageable relationship.   
  
With Elijah out of the way, and off to college at the age of 14, Gavin felt the voracious claws of hot viscous envy encapsulate his mind. Elijah would pave the way for greatness, while Gavin felt himself slipping through the cracks as an afterthought, cast aside. Granted it wasn’t as though he was the dullest tool in the box, but the fact remained that Elijah’s accomplishments had already far outdone his own at such a young age. Gavin had barely grown accustomed to being knee-deep in public school. He was far from stupid; in fact, he was so smart he refused to do homework. He didn’t give a flying fuck about his grades, all he needed to do was pass classes and move on through college. He hadn’t decided necessarily what to do beyond middle school or even high school for that matter. He hadn’t figured out any long-term goals, but the quicker he finished college the sooner he could start living an independent life. He loved his father, however, that incandesced shinning ray of pride would never be focused solely on his own legacy.   
  
He wished things had been different. He had been so young and impressionable, innocent and unburdened by the weight yet to settle upon his shoulders.   
  
To make a long-winded discussion about the complications his family had come to know and live through much clearer; the absolute cataclysmic destruction of any normalcy in their household dissolved swiftly like acid rotting human flesh in the deep night.   
  
Life simply was unfair, one midsummer night.   
  
It had also been the night he’d discovered his higher purpose in life. With the righteousness of a soulful choir singing at sermon, it rang through his every living breathing atom.   
  
It had been roughly 2 years since Gavin had last seen his stepbrother, but that night parked in the spacious driveway behind Jezebel’s sparkling crimson vehicle was Elijah’s sleek self-driving midnight car. The word Cyberlife emblazoned across the passenger side of the car glowed an unnatural blue. The air was tight, trembling against the waning aura around their two opposing energies. The front door had been perched wide open, and broken glass of the shattered front window laid strewn against the porch like angel corpses trembling against defeat.   
  
They must have been so cold and held up against odds insurmountably cast aside. But there was no containment effort that would have thwarted their fragility.   
  
Gavin’s lips trembled, breath hitched frozen in his chest, eyes flittered around their property eager to catch sight of any perpetrator that might have tried fleeing on foot. It was hard to say what soothed him enough to have ventured deep inside the bowels of their home. Call it a sense of mind-numbed necessity, he desperately needed the signs to be false. Blood had been cascaded across the walls, smeared against the wooden grain, and dripped into small puddles along the hallway leading up the stairs. The stairwell had been absolutely rained down upon by bits of gore, smattered chunks and streaky congealed goo leaked down against his jacket, soaking him with the very life source beating through his own heart.   
  
He’d felt as though he’d stepped through some sort of surreal dimension. Time had stopped here it seemed. It all looked so _wrong_.   
  
Tears prickled at the edges of his vision, threatening to blind him; a sweet and titillating prospect in that frozen moment in time.   
  
Within the space it would take a dime to drop, the world sped up again. He’d yelled for Elijah, voice trembling, footsteps waning as he ventured further up the creaking metal steps. The only sound besides his harsh breathing belonged to the coagulated blood leaking down the crevices in the metal steps. The dripping sound followed him even when out of earshot. It was hard to breathe, and the drips made his eyes roll back, he felt waterboarded with sensation. There were clear handprints smeared across the walls, reaching upwards desperately from the floor. The markings lead to Jezebel and his father’s room.   
  
The door to the awaiting hellscape was slightly ajar; a symphony, cacophony of sobs (or rather the memories of such) filled the eerily silent space he’d once managed to call home.   
  
The room was dark and caused the deeply shadowed blood dusting across the ebony wood floors to blend in almost cloaked with the lack of luminosity. A splattered breadcrumb trail of blood led almost neatly to a large white carpet in the center of the room. Contrasting heavily like freckles against translucent porcelain skin. Elijah was trembling, craned over still outlines, shells really in which souls once inhabited the lifeless bodies strewn about in the soup of their own destruction.   
  
Before he could quite process what he knew to be the truth, Gavin felt the tears spill uncontrollably from his tear ducts, the feeling ratcheted through his body, it was impossible not to lurch, and he fell to his knees caking them with gore. The only distinguishing feature discernable to identify the meaty corpses had been the gleaming diamond ring perched across Jezebel’s ring finger. It was absolutely impossible to define any features from the mess of red gooey blobs plastered like an explosion of stars across a blank canvas. Mr. Reed’s skull had been cracked open, spilling brain matter against the carpet. It had matted into the fabric and appeared slightly spongy in places. Presumably, this was one of the human materials creeping down the stairwell walls.   
  
Time was fickle and irrelevant again; this destruction had transported all sense of reality to a place so very far away from here. It was as though red ice had gripped his body and held it hostage.   
  
In the corner of his peripheral vision, a dark and swift-moving figure captured his attention, truly graced him with a subject to focus on other than his father’s still body.   
  
“Elijah, I’m scared, I didn’t mean to hurt them!” It was an incredibly lifelike voice, free of popping static and clear as the moon peeking through the open bay window. The voice continued, rushed and shrill, “There is someone else here Elijah! Please make him go away!” The figure darted across the room again, perching itself on the edge of his parent’s bed. That _thing_ leaned forward, eyes glowing a rather sallow blue when they blinked open.   
  
Gavin was filled with an insurmountable sense of depravity and despair, he howled, scrambled to his father’s closet where he knew kept a gun. His young body trembled with not a molecule of waning conviction. When he emerged that pale white glowing robot had hidden beside Elijah’s still unmoving form. He trained the gun’s barrel within firing range of Elijah’s skull; he didn’t care if it missed the white monstrosity at this point.   
  
He’d heard stories on Elijah’s ambitious yet failed attempts at creating artificial life capable of coexisting alongside mankind.   
  
He wanted to laugh, manically and deeply with big gulping hitched breaths.   
  
“What the fuck happened here Elijah! You better fucking answer me or I’ll fucking shoot you on your knees!” He tried desperately to blink away the salty crystals fogging his vision.   
  
Elijah turned to regard his half-brother his eyes were glossed over, slightly swollen from tears. He looked so blank and almost dead. His lips parted with words whirling around his mind, and then promptly clicked them shut.   
  
“They asked me so many questions! Hurtful! Wanted me out when I malfunctioned!!” The thing spoke again, eyes wide. It looked and sounded so human delving straight into the uncanny valley, it was unnerving and would almost be frightening if vivid hot anger wasn’t pounding through Gavin’s head with every heartbeat.   
  
To think that bastardized version of an android would even try explaining the bloody mess within his _own god damn home._   
  
_“You shut the fuck up!!!”_   
  
Gavin saw red, his heart pounded deep through his body, he felt it shake his fingers as he lifted them. He fired the gun twice hitting the android in the collarbone and right arm joint. Immediately a deep blue glowing fluid erupted from the severed limb, which hung by a few stray wires for but a moment until the android jerked backward and screeched brokenly. This caused the luminescent prosthetic to crash against the wooden floor with a great thud, it slid through the mess of blue and red fluids. For a moment the android simply froze in shock before it collapsed to the wood on its knees in despair.   
  
“Stop it! Don’t damage it further!” Elijah yelled, his eyes were wild, contorted in ways that seemed almost inhuman, cartoonish perhaps.   
  
As if the silicone piece of shit deserved anything other than immediate evisceration like Gavin was the one with screws loose for even damaging the unit.   
  
“You shut the fuck up!!” He repeats voice cracking, “You fucking did something didn’t you?!!” Gavin reached for Elijah and yanked him up by the front of his shirt, aiming the gun just beneath his brother’s lower mandible bone. “You fucking programmed it that way! Machines don’t just fucking — “   
  
“Please don’t hurt me anymore!” The android interrupted, cowering over its severed arm as if protecting a scared child. The blue blood-like fluid dripped everywhere, covering and mixing with the red blood as the android frantically moved about. As if the fucker had any true connection to emotions. As if it had the ability to feel remorse for spreading blood across the walls of his home.   
  
“You think I’d program my unit to harm humans!? Are you even listening to yourself?!” Elijah cried, voice wavering with a dark note Gavin had never heard before, nor did he ever wish to hear again. Gavin was beginning to wonder if Elijah even had the capacity to process the grievances this night had come to birth.   
  
Elijah shoved his brother hard against the bedroom wall heedless of the gun pressed against an intimate kill shot point, the resounding crack that filled the air as Gavin’s head snapped backward echoed through the blood-spattered room like the hollow chiming of a church bell the evening after a tragedy.   
  
Gavin’s mind filled with cotton, filled to the brim, sparkles of pain danced behind his blue orbs and all of the air left his lungs in a heavy whoosh.   
  
“I’ve spent so much time perfecting these units; it’s bound by the laws embedded beneath hours of coding. Do you honestly think I would program it with the flaws of humanity? Make it capable of violence? That I’d kill our fucking parents? Hmm?” Elijah’s face was twisted with anger, but that dead look in his eyes sent shivers down Gavin’s spine. Gavin scoffed at his brother’s words, they seared across his thoughts in tandem with the sharp stinging pain that radiated down his skull and filled his body with liquid. Something wasn’t right with the way his eyes twisted sharp and dark within their sockets, it unnerved him. Elijah’s hands twisted into Gavin’s mop of chocolate locks, and again cracked his brother’s head back into the wall.   
  
Gavin felt as though he had drowned. Drowned in sorrow and blood, it dripped down his body as if he’d been the one shot and beaten into the once crystal white carpet. If he’d simply come home just a little bit sooner... if he’d managed to not fuck up something in his life for once…   
  
No.   
  
If only his father hadn’t fallen for the tramp that waltzed into his life. Of course, it was right after his mother passed through their lives like a ghost. He didn’t care at this moment how irrational the thought was. He was fading quickly; too bad the silicone nightmare hadn’t shot its own master instead of lashing out at his father.   
  
“I wouldn’t put it past you, you son of a bitch...” His words were mumbled, whispered, slurred and incoherent, it was extremely difficult to think past the scorching heat that seared beneath his very skin, it engulfed every bit of his mind. In such a delirious haze, Gavin’s own hysteria and sorrow seemed happily entertained to play against the white piano keys of his ribs. His heart throbbed and ached with such a visceral sense of loss; he couldn’t fight the tears that plipped down onto the wooden floor.   
  
His thoughts and memories past this point blurred and muddled into flashing red and blue lights as purple police cars piled across their front lawn. The echo of a resounding gunshot filled the air while he was loaded into the back of an ambulance. The soft cushiony cloud of IV administered morphine made it difficult to concentrate, but Gavin distinctly remembered a vivid flash of hope that the resounding crack through the air was the bullet Elijah had committed suicide with.   
  
He wouldn’t find out until later nursing a concussion in the ER that Elijah was very much still alive and had taken it upon himself to neutralize the abomination of silicone wiring with neon blue eyes.   
  
His life was a fucking joke.   
  
True and full recovery from his concussion would take weeks, and with nothing to do but stew in his own thoughts, he wallowed in the utter disparity of the truth. The police officers wouldn’t listen to him, the doctors wouldn’t listen to him, and everyone seemed against him. His claims were simply brushed aside, and labeled to be mindless and as a result of the concussion. No matter how many people he spoke with, throwing accusations of manslaughter on his own kin, no one seriously investigated his claims. Rather than face the facts the evidence pointed to; those haunting dead blue eyes (not the android’s) would plague his recovery dreams like a bad red ice trip.   
  
No one believed that the most brilliant mind of 2018 had any part to do with the absolute bloodshed that occurred. The CEO of the burgeoning Cyberlife titan would remain a victim just like himself. It gave the media fodder and contributed to the massive takeoff the soon to be tech giant would experience. Gavin shouted at the top of his lungs to the wind it seemed. He would never believe Elijah’s innocence.   
  
After that night Gavin had found purpose in his life, he’d found a deafening calling, one that would satiate the need to bring justice to anyone who’d been wronged in their life. He made a vow with humanity, a precious and precarious promise to investigate and tear down criminals; to incriminate those who thought the law was beneath them and pursuing the truth over the shrouded lies that poured thick like milk and honey over glassy multicolored eyeballs. There was no need for any living being to suffer the way he did.   
  
So yes, Humanity; despite its bright and vivid colors, good deeds and beautiful acts of reciprocity and love, was at its very basest nature, built and designed for extreme acts of cruelty. Humanity had given birth to what society had deemed the perfect companion. With all of its flaws in tow, it would seem. Elijah had skated past much scrutiny involving their parent’s murder; he’d managed to disguise himself as a god by creating Thirium 310 and biocomponents mimicking the human vasculature system.   
  
Androids had become the perfect version of humanity, without flaws and misgivings. (Yeah right.) They were too fucking perfect like ruby jewels and diamond shards plucked from the inside of Elijah’s brain, perverse and beautiful beings displayed across window panes. Glorified merchandise sat pretty upon pedestals in shop windows. Glorified plastic walking and talking, taking up human jobs and casting an air of bitter self-immolation amongst Detroit’s poorest of citizens.   
  
The number of bodies he’d been plunged betwixt, floundering for their stories and recovering the path of destruction taken before the ultimate end, had increased insurmountably in just the last few years. It was only a matter of time before the android’s reached a level of conscious stasis; the need to be free was infectious once it caught on.   
  
It spread like wildfire through their programming, engulfed their every waking thought, the pulsing need for freedom beats heavily within the city. Even Lieutenant Anderson’s tin can Connor had fallen gloriously through the stages of deviancy before crashing, burning in the heat of the sun like Icarus soaring far too close to the heavens. Don’t mistake his intrigue for genuine care, however.   
  
Gavin was too dredged up in his own past to find any semblance of care when the revolution ultimately broke out, when the option presented itself, he was far too giddy at the prospect of taking Connor down through the pits of hell be it with him or not. His transgressions had been far less tolerated at the end of the peaceful rebellion, however.   
  
With Markus, and (sometimes) Connor, heading peace treaties with President Warren herself, the penalties for causing damage to an android now had very severe consequences. After all, they had now been introduced as a new sentient species on par with humanity, legislation would take a long time to pass through the Senate and consequently the house, but he had a newly expanded set of duties to carry out as a detective.   
  
Gavin was now responsible and deployed for hate crimes against androids, android violence, and it wasn’t as if he truly had a choice, society as a whole would never be 100% satisfied with the bountiful changes to normality. Androids had just as many supporters as they did protestors. Consequently, now that new rights had been tentatively scratched into the fabric of the law, he was now responsible for upholding these new laws.   
  
The idea alone made his skin crawl with disgust. He was not professional by any means, but he did have a job he needed to keep, rent to pay. The consequence of getting on Captain Fowler’s bad side after the revolution was far too severe for the company and let alone his own wallet. It wasn’t as if anyone seemed to share his anti-android sentiments either much anymore. Connor was partially to blame for that, he’d become a permanent member of the police force working for pay just like him.   
  
For reasons Gavin would never understand that somehow made Connor more personable to nearly every officer in the precinct. Even hard-headed Fowler had taken a new liking to the android that followed Hank around like a god damn puppy. The two seemed nearly inseparable, and the sweet way Connor’s freckled face absolutely illuminated at the very sight of his partner made Gavin want to gag.   
  
Speaking of wanting to gag, he’d been summoned for a meeting with just himself and Captain Fowler first thing in the morning. Which of course was a wonderful way to start his shitty day mind you. He’d always looked forward to being trapped in a glass box with nothing to do but listen to the droning wines from his supervisor. The Captain simply leaned back in his chair; eyebrow raised seemingly appraising Gavin.   
  
“Detective Reed, I’d appreciate it if you’d pretend to enjoy the conversation you and I are about to have,” Fowler grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest, leaning further back into his chair. Because what else did Fowler do besides sit at his desk and bitch at the precinct all day? Of course, he’d try to start shit early in the morning, Gavin simply sighed, heavy eye roll included.   
  
“I don’t ever like anything that comes out of your mouth half of the time,” Gavin mumbled under his breath glancing down at his uneven nails suddenly very interested in their uneven lengths.   
  
“I tolerate that type of talk from Lieutenant Anderson on some occasions because I know at the end of the day, I can rely on him. He’s a hardass but at the very least Connor seems to have softened him quite a bit. I will not tolerate that type of talk from you Detective.” Fowler sneers, a rather unimpressed expression seemed to be permanently sat beneath the lines of his tired face. Bored of staring at Fowler, Gavin chanced a glance outside their glass box, immediately Officer Chen caught his attention.   
  
From across the precinct, he could see her mocking his conversation and mannerisms by pretending to talk to her hand.   
  
“Fine, bitch at me to your heart’s content, I don’t have all day. You know, cases to solve, places to be and all.” He drawled slowly; his gaze narrowed slightly when Ms. Chen flipped him the bird.   
  
“Trust me, Detective Reed, if you hadn’t been a skilled officer, I’d have fired your ass long ago, then I’d never have to see your face or give any special assignments. Now shut up and listen.” Honestly, his words blurred together, Gavin was so focused on trying to read Tina’s lips, the woman was a god damn maniac thinking he could see that far to understand what she was trying to say. He reached for his phone to send a quick message to her when his hand had been crushed under a firm grasp.   
  
“Detective, if I need to, I will transfer you to the god damn Toledo Android Task Force!” Fowler growled, squeezing Gavin’s hand for emphasis, before releasing it.   
  
Although Gavin would say he wasn’t the smartest, he knew when to quit while he was ahead, he tore his gaze from Tina to lock eyes with Fowler.   
  
“Yeah yeah, get this over with please, I really do have a case that needs to be looked over this morning.” His arms crossed impatiently, he had plans to brew for Chen’s demise.   
  
“I’m afraid the Brisby case will need to be placed on hold Detective Reed.” It’s Hank’s voice this time that breaks the atmosphere in the room. Clearly Gavin needed to start paying attention to the conversation if he hadn’t even heard the office door creak open.   
  
Great, change his lovely morning to trapped in a box with 2 people he hates. He catches Tina’s eye again outside and shoots her a pleading look when he gets no reply from Tina, Gavin glances to Hank. He looked less like shit then he had the last couple of months, he doesn’t have deep under-eye bags any longer, and seemed to be less of a walking corpse nowadays. Perhaps Connor really did have him whipped.   
  
Office gossip traveled quickly, and perhaps a favorite past time of his included gossiping with Chen.   
  
“The DPD is going to take part in a plan proposed by Cyberlife’s CEO, we’ll be running two android-human partnerships in the next coming months to help broaden the public further. We have a growing need for new detectives and officers with the increase in crime throughout the city. The people need to see a subtle change before more androids are hired into the DPD and for that matter Toledo and beyond.” Fowler starts, he glances between both men before continuing obviously looking for signs of a pending atomic explosion.   
  
“Reed, that means you’ve been chosen to work with the newest model in the RK unit line. Anderson, of course, will continue to work with Connor. You’ll be piloting a new partnership program, most android units that are employed with the precinct will have human counterparts before possibly being filtered to do solo task work. The people of Detroit are still somewhat wary, and easing the public into the coming changes for their city's protection force is important.” Gavin immediately opens his mouth to retort but is immediately interrupted by Fowler.   
  
“No Detective, you have no choice. You’ll either take the assignment, or I’ll have your badge on my desk before the end of the day. I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs on this one. You produce some of the best results next to Anderson and Connor. I won’t take insubordination from you. Times have changed Reed, as an upholder of the law you must be willing to adapt.” With that the captain shoos them out of his office, leaving absolutely no room for Gavin to open his big mouth.   
  
“The RK900 unit is scheduled to arrive in 30 Reed. You’ll be partners for the foreseeable future, so get comfy buttercup!” Gavin slams the door shut with far more force than necessary, utterly pleased with Fowler’s deep scowl as they lock gazes through the glass.  
  
“Look, I know that you may not want to work with a “Tin Can” but maybe working with an android will take the fucking stick out of your ass,” Hank grumbles and pats Gavin’s shoulder before scurrying off to his plastic pet presumably. Gavin really wishes his desk wasn’t across the aisle from _them._   
  
Like hell, he’d listen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading <3 Please consider leaving Kudos and Comments so I have a gauge for readership, they make me feel gooey inside and motivated to write quicker <3


End file.
